Jennifer Mercede grew up in Connecticut but was born in Long Beach, CA. Jennifer began making art at a young age. She was inspired by her grandmother who was a free-spirited watercolorist. Jennifer might have inherited her talent from her grandmother. She loved having the house to herself and spent hours making hundreds of floral greeting cards. She liked to crank up the music as she worked on creative projects. She obtained a bachelor of arts degree in Painting from Western Washington University, and after graduation, she took a few years to live life Bohemian style, earnestly checking off: Heli-skiing, hitch-hiking to Alaska, living in her station wagon on Key West, leading Wilderness trips in the Everglades, selling handmade jewelry on the streets of Manhattan and renting out a corner of a Brooklyn artist loft. Jennifer eventually landed in Portland and began to show in small coffee shops.
Soon, she began to emerge as an artist with the loving support of a great community. Now her work is owned internationally and is well known throughout Portland. Her paintings consist of bright color fields, free flowing text, and crazy energetic doodling. Her art is best described as fine art meets toddler art meets street art. She loves doodling, scribbling, being silly at times and being expressive with markers, paint, crayons whatever suits and is closest the mood. Her aim is to get into the flow zone 'the zone' where she can forget everything and surrender to the joy of painting. She’s spontaneous in her creation.
